Happy Mother's Day!

To all the Mom's in the world Happy Mother's Day! Now that I know my Mom has opened her box I can show you what I sent her this year!
It is a Kusudama ball made from the tutorial on Folding Trees; it's a two part tutorial part 1 and part 2.
I cut each of the 60 squares by hand from coordinating scrapbook paper, I had the right sized origami paper but I really wanted the color to be the same overall with different patterns on the petals. I'm really pleased with the results and my Mom loves it so it was worth all the work.
I really enjoy folding the flowers and have a few of them around, but I think I need to create a ball for myself to take to work and hang by my desk. I have a very small desk so I don't have a lot of desktop space to put things on so this would be perfect!The past few days in the studio have been spent doing lots and lots of prep work, mostly cutting and measuring things. This photo shows everything cut and prepped for the order of folio's for Dark Roast Photography. I have one 3 DVD Folio in the press right now as I couldn't wait to see what they looked like! I love these folio's, they are simple, elegant, and I think a great way to preserve such a wonderful day. This picture can also be found on Flickr with notes about what is strewn around my desk with some commentary. As I said awhile back I moved to google reader to keep up with all the wonderful blogs out in the world and they have a recommendations area in the home page. I had never really noticed it until today when low and behold I found myself!
It makes me wonder how many people out there have found my blog via a reader recommendation and how many people actually have my blog on an RSS feed. The blogger gadget says that I have 3 followers but I would like to think there are many more of you out there on RSS readers.
Ah the things I think about while I'm working away in my studio. I also discovered today that while I work much better with music on in the studio I don't actually listen to it. I spent 4 hours working today and when I finished I realized I had been listening to the same album for the whole time!

Folio's Away

Tuesday morning I pulled the last of Brie's dvd folio's out of the press, shot a few photo's and sent them on their way. It was really rewarding to see them all lined up and finished.

I always try to send a little something extra with all my packages and sales from my shop. If I have the time I always try to personalize what is going into each package as well. For Brie I used a strip of paper that was used to make one of the folio's and her pink book cloth to make a business card holder. The card holder is a Blizzard Book which is a fun little structure, the way this one is put together you can fold it up and tie the ribbon to keep it in your bag, or open it up and lay it on a desk or a counter to display your cards. If I decide to do any shows this summer I will be making one of these to hold my own cards.

Next on my plate is an order for Leslie of Dark Roast Photography her folio's will be designed differently from Brie's and I hope to have a mock up completed this afternoon. Her book cloth has is in transit and I am anxiously awaiting it's arrival. Leslie chose a chocolate brown silk cloth and an ivory damask paper, the combination is going to look fantastic together and I am really excited to get started on them!